there was but one obstruction--and that was an irresponsible corporate banking syetem which had grown up, and which more of by-and-by, or some other occasion; at present, I will pass it. were communicated. Itemtem-a banking system, and a shinplaster currency,-or, in brief, a system by which swindlers may plunder honest men. No icy and stern frugality which it was the constant eff rt of Moses to other systems would divert and deceive the people from the polinculcate, and which the whole frame of government favored. I repeat that all this unexampled prosperity, this rapid ad- But the corrupt politicians and demagogues rung, change! vancement, this magical elevation of national greatness, was change! and a portion of the people, who had gradually become under the influence and auspices of democratic administration corrupted with oriental passions and oriental grandeur, permitted four-fifths of the existence of this government. But a strange their patriotism to be shaken. They began to think there was dream came over the people. They seem to have become sa- something sublime in an eastern court, which gave character, tiated with prosperity, and to have grown weary with happi- dignity, show, and power, to a nation, which was incompatible ness and good government, and they must needs have a "change." with a simple republican government. The rage for change Sir, I desire to dwell some little on that word "change." The spread. They must have a court The show, the gaudy tinsel, word change has always a potent political word. It has ever the splendor and the luxuries of a court, captivated their minds,, been the rallying word of the demagogue. It is the yelp of the blinded their understanding, and vitiated their tastes. The disdisappointed office-seeker. It has ever been so from the com- tempered rage for a change spread more and wider. To have mncement of civilized government. It was the cry of change a court, they must have a king-not their frugal Moses, or their that overthrew the first republican government that history divine Deliverer any longer; but a temporal king, who could describes-I mean the government of the Israelites. That was bestow bounties, and receive flatteries-a court, a king, milita a republican government, from the time of the conquest of Cary splendor, a central power, and a strong government. Moses, naan; and although laws were proposed to the people through and a man called Samuel, who was a successor of Moses, reMoses, yet no law was obligatory until it was received and monstrated against a change of government, and represented, adopted by the voice or suffrage of the people. The Almighty in the strongest possible terms, the dangers and fatal effects of was their king, but not without their choice. He was repeat-eastern corruptions, eastern despotism, and eastern bondage. edly elected as such by the suffrage of the people. Moses, al. All their remonstrance was in vain; a change they would though generally regarded as the Israelitish legislator, in his have; a temporal king they would have; an oriental court time was nothing more than a mediator, or medium through and a military depositism they would have; and the Almighty which the will, the wishes, and approbation of the Almighty gave them, in his anger, a king, and all the rest soon followed. Saul was the first king under their new change.. The Jewish government was established on those principles He governed well for a short time, but soon became des. which alone can make a people happy and independent. The potic, and towards the last of his reign became insupport Jews were an agricultural people, and every man a freeholder; ably capricious. He was rejected, and one David was and such were the restrictions on the alienation of landed chosen in his place. David was a true patriot, a sincere friend property, that every Jew came into the world the owner of of his country, and ardently devoted to its highest interests. land, and went out of the world the owner of land. It was a prom- The country prospered under his administration, though oriinent principle of the Jewish government to encourage agricul-ental customs, and the military spirit of the people, grew unture, and to foster it above all other business or occupation; and, der his reign, and, with these, increased taxation. Solomon so long as that policy remained, so long it was retained in its succeeded David He ruled with moderation and wisdom at primitive simplicity-there was no people on earth more happy first, but, towards the end of his reign, became very tyrannical, than were the Jews. But, in the course of time, demagogues and laid heavy burdens upon his people. Oppression had aland ambitious politicians grew up among them. They must ready become the reward of their desired change. Rehoboam needs have a change. Though above all the people on earth, succeeded Solomon. He refused to lighten the burdens of the they were not only blessed with the best government and the people; and this caused a dismemberment of the empire-ten richest land, but were daily furnished by the hand of the Al- tribes going off, under Jeroboam, and forming a separate gov. nighty; they were daily feceiving the bounties of his goodness; ernment. From this time the nation became rapidly more and they had been delivered from Egyptian bondage by a miracu more corrupt; the kings more and more despotic; the people tous interposition of Divine Providence; and, when hotly phr- more and more enslaved: and the result of all was the decay sued by Pharaoh and his host, they had seen Moses, by divine and ruin of the government. Let us sum up the evils of the power, smite the Arabian gulf with a rod, divide the waters, | change: and roll back the mighty waves, through which they passed dry-shod, while Pharaoh and his host were drowned; when on their way in the parched wilderness, they drank pure water, which they had seen Moses draw from the flinty rock by a smite of his rod; when they ahungered in the wilderness, manna fell from heaven, of which they ate in gratitude and solemn thanks;-all these things were fresh in their recollection when they first attempted a change; and that change was to desert the standard of Moses, and the Almighty's protection, and betake themselves to Aaron, and erect a golden calf, and bestow on it the divine honors which were due to Him who had delivered them from bondage, and fed them in the wilderness: that was the first change. The motives of the Jews in that change were of a character with those which moved a majori-governments, and expose the fatal effects of that word change. y of the American people in 1840, when they deserted the dem. ocratic standard and betook themselves to whigery. They were wont to erect a calf, too-not a calf to be made of gold, but one to be made of shinplasters; a kind of rag-tag and bob tail calf-a calf to be made with rags and lamp-black, worthy of a rag-baron aristocracy. But John Tyler knocked that calf on the head, thank God, as Moses did Aaron's; for when he (Moses) returned from the mount, he demolished Aaron's calf, and reconciled the Almighty with the Jews, whose wrath had been kindled against them for their idolatry. * 1. An increase of taxation, with the increase of the military spirit; and numerous and exhausting wars, as a consequence. 2. Tyranny and despotism in the government-many of the kings becoming as tyrannical as the eastern despots. 3. A neglect of agriculture. 4 Entire change in the admirable agrarian laws of Moses. 5. Ultimate ruin, and subjection of the nation to a foreign yoke. And this, sir, was the career of the Israelites; and this the ruin brought upon them by that fatal word change, invented, introduced, and rung by demagogues and corrupt politicians, who have been the overthrow and downfall of every republic. I have no time to trace up the histories of republics, or free If I bad, I could refer you to the word change, which was nev er out of the mouth of Hanno, by which he embarrassed the correct action of the senate of Carthage, and poisoned the minds of the people; and by which he embarrassed the movements of IIannibal, at the very time he was shaking the walls of Romez: and by which he succeeded in effecting the recall of Hannibal, and, with his recall, the destruction of the last hope of ever conquering Rome; and by which, too, he and his kindred spirits succeeded in overthrowing the republic of Carthage, and mak ing her the prey to Roman conquest. But ere long corrupt politicians again sprang up, and denoun- I could, also, refer to the demagogues and corrupt and bribed ced the government as weak and imbecile. Demagogues and politicians of Greece, who, with their pockets full of Persian loafers multiplied, who, (in that country as in this, and every gold, and their mouths filled with change, laid the foundation other,) too lazy to work and too proud to beg, determined to for the overthrow of her republics. It was the same fatal live on the labor of others. Not content with that wise and word, in the brawling mouths of corrupt politicians, that subequitable system of government which distributed justice and verted the Roman republic; and the same word, after the overequality to all, and made every Jew a constituent part of the throw of the republic, placed one vile despot after another on government-made every Jew a landholder and a freeman; the throne, each vile despot viler and more despotic than his not content with that policy which inade the Jews an agricul- predecessor, until the people of Rome, from being the freest tural people, (for which they were peculiarly fitted, and to people on earth, became the greatest slaves on earth, and unwhich their country was peculiarly adapted,) they sought toil, too, it was finally overthrown. The overthrow of all those establish systems of inequality; to divert the public attention republics was brought about by the word change in the mouths from the humble, punctual, and frugal-though honorable of corrupt politicians, hired demagogues, and pensioned liars, pursuits of agriculture; and to adopt a system more in accord precisely such as overspread our country in 1840, and by ance with oriental grandeur: to this end, privileged orders and whose means the democracy were overthrown. Yes, sir, irresponsible institutions must be established-something like overthrown by pensioned liars, hired demagogues, corThe policy sought to be established in our country, which has rupt and bribed politicians, whose incessant cry was for its object the oppression of the many to enhance the inter-change! change! change! The word change was never ests of the few.---I mean a protective-tariff system--a credit sys-permitted to die on the ear. Well, the change was ef. fected. The democratic party was overthrown. A democrat-sure to be called in as auxiliaries. So it was in the election of The appropriations which supplied the first year of Mr. Van Total $31,610,003 31,544,396 25,443,716 22,389,356 110,997.471 ic candidate for the presidency was defeated in his re-election 1840-to falsehood as a means, slander, detraction, perjury, --one who had administered the government on as pure prin- bribery, and treason, were called in; and the whole, united, ciples as it ever had been administered or ever will be admin constituted a part of the means by which the federalists were istered-one who had sustained our free institutions, the consti- too successful. But, in addition to falsehood, and all its vile tution, and the nation's horor, with an ability and a wisdom and unworthy associates, there were other means used, equally which never has been surpassed since the formation of our degrading to the American character, and the American nation; government-a man who was and is alike distinguished for all of which I shall treat in their order. And first of the falsethe purity of his morals as for his talents as a statesman; dis-hoods-wholesale falsehoods I deal in-wholesale and general tinguished alike for his firmness as for his attachment to demo-whig falsehoods I begin with No. 1. It was said the administracratic principles and the support of democratic institutions; tion of Mr. Van Buren was an extravagant, a wasteful, and a alike distinguished for the qualities of his head as for the good-corrupt administration. To put a direct contradiction upon ness of his heart; with a moral reputation which even the sirocco this triple falsehood, I will submit statistics; and in order that breath of slander dare not approach. Such was the man whose I may be read with greater case, I will nake them as brief as election was defeated by that potent word change, and its accom possible; and in order to illustrate, I will compare figures with panying means. Yes, sir, the accompanying means; I must have the expenditures of this administration that promised such resomething to say about the accompanying means, in connex form. ion with the word change. And what were they? Ah! sir, could they be blotted from the recollection of man, and could the history that records them be annihilated, what friend to his country-what man or patriot, jealous of the honor and the reputation of his country and the American character, would wish to revive their recollection? But to the disgrace of this people, and to the dishonor of our republican institutions, here and elsewhere, they live in memory-they live in history, and will live after all who now live will have returned to dust. They will live when time shall have crumbled the marble columns that support the dome of this hall; even then, the drunken orgies which disgraced the elections of 1840 will be classed with the aggregate amount of the expenditures of Mr. Van Buren's the drunken orgies which disgraced all Greece in the worship administration. I say aggregate amount; I mean by that the of Bacchus; fresh, then, will the disgraceful scenes of 1840 be ordinary and extraordinary expenditures; I mean by the ordiin history, as the bacchanalian feasts are now. So we cannot nary expenditures, the civil and diplomatic expenditures, as hide them; knowing them as we do, and known as they are, we well as the ordinary expenditures for the army and navy, Inmay better serve our country by exposing them. dían annuities, and interest on the funded or District debt-all of I desire to tax your time a few moments while I make a which are ordinary, because they are of yearly occurrence, few comments on truth-for I regard it as the highest virtue whether we are in peace or in war. They are incidental to the. of any peop'e, whether in a national, or in an individual army, to the navy, and to our funded debts. I mean by the expoint of view. In the language of another, truth is a light from traordinary expenditures, those which occurred in consequence on high. It is almost the only thing on earth which is worth of the border difficulties; the public buildings, the Creek Indian the research and care of man. It is the light of our mind; it war, the Florida war, the removal of Indians across the Missis should be the rule and the guide of our heart, as it is the founda.sippi, and their settlement in agriculture, &c.—all of which tion of our hopes, and the comfort of our fears. It is the alle were extraordinary expenditures, nearly all of which had their viating balm of our evils, and the true remedy, of all our troubeginning, and nearly all of which had their end, in Mr. Van Bubles and misfortunes. It is the source of good, and the horror ren's administration. I will exhibit the amount of those ex“ of bad conscience; it is the secret punisher of vice, and the traordinary expenditures, as well their several as their aggreeverlasting reward of virtue. It immortalizes those who prac-gate amount. I will separate them from the ordinary expendi. tise it; it dignifies the chains, and makes supportable the dark and gloomy dungeon of those who suffer for it; and it brings and perpetuates public praise and public honors upon the memories of those who have been its defenders and its martyrs. It makes respectable the humility and the poverty of those who have sacrificed all in its pursuit and its support. It inspires magnanimity of thought, and forms heroic souls, of which this world is unworthy. It has made every sage and every hero that the world has ever produced, worthy of the name. How unfortunate that it was it was not better known and more highly appreciated by the whigs at all times, but more especially in the political campaign of 1840! But, to form a true estimate of its exalted merits, we must contrast it with its antagonist principle-falsehood; which, of all vices, is the most degrading and degraded. It sinks those who practise it, in the es timation of God and the virtuous world, below the brute; and confirms the end, the ruin, and the disgrace, it is sought to avoid. All the principles and effects, whether of truth or falsehood, may be applied in an individual and private sense; but how much more estimable is truth when applied in a national sense? The aggregate of which is and how much more disgusting and horrible is falsehood when viewed in a national sense, or used to deceive a nation? A falsehood is a misrepresentation of a fact, or things, for the purpose Deduct this aggregate from the expenditures for of deception. A falsehood works two evils-a crime on the part of him who attempts to deceive, and an injury on the part of him who is deceived. If an individual makes a misreprentation, not knowing it to be such, he is guilty of no falsehood in the moral sense, and is guilty of no wrong except the injury to him whe is deceived. So, too, if an individual relate a falsehood, and it fails to deceive the individual intended to be deceived, either from the improbability of the thing intended to be misrepre-matic. sented, or from the known character of the misrepresentor as I now exhibit the expenditures of the first two years of this a liar, in that case, the misrepresentation fails of its object, Philistine whig administration,-whig in the Senate-whig in and no injury is done; but the moral turpitude of the falsehood the House-whig all over, with the entire control of the gov. is undiminished. The failure to accomplish a crime, does not erament in their hands, so far as the appropriating power diminish the crime involved in the intention and effort to com. was concerned; and I have no expenditures to exhibit but mit it. So, too, is a falsehood criminal in proportion to the in- those which I have called ordinary in Mr. Van Buren's adjury which its misrepresentation may effect. If it deceives a ministration; for there has been no Florida war, no Indians to nation, it is criminal in its effects and design, in proportion to remove, no border difficulties except what were settled by negothe magnitude of the nation and the extent of the evil. Now, tiation, nor any public buildings, except some small finishing sir, I charge falsehood as one of the means used by the federal expenditures; and what do you think they are, sir? I hold in party in 1840 to overthrow the democracy, and to defeat the my hand House document No. 62, prepared by a whig officer of election of Mr. Van Buren, and every democratic candidate that this House; of course it is good authority against whig profiwas defeated. But when falsehood is substituted for truth to gacy. Here is the document. It is a pamphlet; it is all cover. effect an object, every other means-however criminal, how-ed with figures, and every figure counts tens, hundreds, thou over mean, however detestable, and however degrading-are | sands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions, and tures, and show the difference. I will then compare the ordinary expenditures under Mr. Van Buren's administration, with the ordinary expenditures of this whig-reform-economical administration, and exhibit the difference, and make it so plain that every democratic boy of Israel shall be able to overthrow any whig of Gath, or of the Philistine tribe, though he be as big as Goliah. The amount expended for the Florida war within the term of Mr. Van Buren's administration, together with the Creek war, was, as reports show $38,000,000 The amount expended on behalf of all our border difficulties Amount for removal of Indians across the Missis sippi, and their settlement ་ Amount expended on the public buildings, viz: 500,000 3,261,315 400,000 400,000 the entire administration of Mr. Van Buren And we have the sum of This we find to be the entire amount expended in Mr. Wan Buren's administration for its full term, for the ordinary sup. port of the army, navy, and the government, civil and diplo tens of millions, such as no man can number or detail in a 】 And this, sir, is the end, so far as retrenchment and reform is speech. I must describe by aggregates. I must lump the millions. Here they are. I expose them to the honest people, the hard handed tax payers, who were promised reform, retrenchment, and relief from tax burdens, if they would unite with the federalists to overthrow the democracy. While in power, the wings held three sessions in one Con- $1,065.091 4.625,443 1.703.976 6.684.769 9 144,733 2,274.637 9 098 907 concerned, which was to justify the corrupt means which were used to defeat the election of Mr. Van Buren, and overthrow the democratic party. The means, as I have stated-falsehood, and its infamous auxiliaries, corruption, bribery, treason, and perjury-were to be justified by the end; and the end is an increase of the expenditure nearly double, and consequently a double imposition of taxes, and double burdens on the people. So much for the corrupt means; so much for the unfortunate end, both worthy of each other, worthy of the party who used them, and worthy of the party who have brought them about. I say, then, that the promises which $12,646,079 were made of reform and retrenchment were falsehoods; they were made for the purposes of deception, and have deceived; they involve the crime of falsehood, and the injury of deception. But the sweeping, unlimited, and reckless falsehoods of 1840 were not confined to false promises; they were 17,522,478 | fraught with slander, detraction, and libels both of men and measures. To enumerate the falsehoods and slanders would require volumes; to enumerate the slandered would be to embrace every prominent democrat in the country, and every measure of the then administration. It is not my purpose to enter into particulars, or to deal in personalities; but there is one case, and one person, that I must be permitted to speak of 20,111,408 while on this branch of the subject. The case to which I allude was the speech of Mr. BUCHANAN of the Senate; and that person is honest John Davis of Massachusetts. Honest John! God save the mark! 9,030,900 $58,719 867 Thus, it seems that the ordinary expenses of the whig reform and retrenchment administration for two years, (not four,) shows the sum of fifty-eight millions seven hundred and nineteen thousand eight hundred and sixty seven dollars. Now for the comparison. I have deducted the extraordinary expenditures under Mr. Van Buren's administration from the ordinary, and find that they were $14,603,490 : Mr. BUCHANAN, when supporting the independent treasury bill, said: "The chief object was to disconnect the government from all banks; to secure the people's money from the wreck of the banking system, and to have it always ready to promote the prosperity of the country in peace, and to defend it in war. Incidentally, however, it will do some good in checking the extravagant spirit of speculation, which is the bane of society." Mr. B., throughout his speech, from which the above extract is taken, denied that the independent treasury system would or could have the effect to produce the disasters upon the community which its enemies attributed to it. The effects attributed were, that it would destroy the banks, break down the credit system, establish an exclusive metallic currency, reduce the value of property and the price of labor. He denied that the bill possessed the power to produce such effects; and (as all his speeches show) was opposed to an exclusive metallic currency in the then condition of the country, owing to the manner in For the first year For the second year For the third year For the fourth year Making in all Which is the amount of the extraordinary expenditures. If we deduct this sura from the whole amount, (ordinary and extra-which the commercial, mercantile, and general interests of the ordinary expenditures,) the balance will show the amount of ordinary expenditures through the whole four years of Mr. Van Buren's administration: Aggregate amount of ordinary and extraordinary expendi tures From which deduct- $110,997,471 42,961,315 This estimate shows that, through the four years of Mr. Van Buren's administration, the ordinary expenditures of the govendent treasury plan, and all financial measures appertaining ernment were sixty-eight million thirty-six thousand one hun dred and fifty-six dollars; while a federal coon administration, in two years of its time, under a solemn pledge of reform and etrenchment, has expended fifty-eight millions seven hundred and nineteen thousand and nine hundred dollars. Let us see the difference. Here it is: Amount of all ordinary expenditures under Mr. Amount of all ordinary expenditures under 68,036,156 $58,719,967 country were interwoven with banks, paper currency, and the credit system. No man trod more cautiously, or advanced with more precision, and, at the same time, with more firmness, in the reformations that were then in progress in relation to the currency, and to the control, management, and disbursement of the national revenue, than did Mr. B. The safety of the revenue, and its proper and secure management, without materially af fecting the channels of trade and the general interests of the country, seemed to be his highest object--for the truth of which I can safely refer to all his speeches in support of the indewhen made, and reading them when printed; and yet, in the face thereto. I speak knowingly; I speak from hearing his speeches of all who heard him, and all who read his speeches, John Davis puts this argument in his mouth, viz: "It (the independent treasury) contains the necessary corrective [for the evils] imputable to the pernicious influence of bank paper, as it will check importations of foreign goods, suppress what we call the credit system, and, by restoring a specie currency, reduce the wages of labor and the value of property!" And this argument, which Mr. Buchanan never conceived, (or, if he did, never expressed.) constituted a part of "honest John's" speech, and was heralded far and wide through the country; and was labelled and endorsed, and heralded back again, by every foul, filthy, false federal sheet in the land; and by every hired bank minThus it appears from statistics, official and true as moral ion and corrupt demagogue in the shape of a stump speaker, reason, that the ordinary expenditures of the two first years from Daniel Webster down to the most contemptible whig of this reform and retrenchment administration have been whiffet of federal mimicry. I take it on myself to say, but $10,316,189 less than the entire four years of Mr. Van and hold myself responsible, that a more meretricious Buren's administration. But, I may be told that there were falsehood never was invented-a baser and more groundsome extraordinary expenditures necessary under this admin less falsehood never entered the head or heart of any istration; what were they? The Florida war was closed when man. The Florida war was closed when man. It was a falsehood worthy to be conceived by a vile, it came into power; at least, so near so, that there were not vitiated brain; worthy to be cherished by a corrupt heart; four hundred Seminole warriors in Florida, and they were worthy to be given birth to by a polluted and foul mouth; and fast coming in and surrendering. The boundary difficulty was worthy to be promulgated by a poisoned pen; and worthy to be so far concluded, that nothing was left but negotiation, and that endorsed by a reckless, unprincipled, and corrupt party. I was conducted to our disadvantage, our dishonor, and the sur- have noticed this falsehood, though at first personal; but it was render of a vast territory. The Creek war was ended, the told and spread to deceive a nation, and it did deceive a nation. Creek and Cherokee Indians were removed, and the public It contained in its beginning the crime of a falsehood, and in buildings were nearly completed. But, if it is contended that effect and end the injury of a falsehood. I name it and expose there were extraordinary expenditures, I will offset them with it, in connexion with others of a like character, that the indisome extraordinary expenditures in Mr. Van Buren's adminis-vidual community may guard themselves against the effects of tration, which I have not classed as such. I mean the expendi such falsehoods in the coming contest, which will fall upon the tures growing out of the extra session, in the summer of 1837, country as leaves in autumn by the blight of frost. which was brought upon the people by the impolitic connexion of the government with the swindling banking institutions. $10,316,189 But falsehood and slander, and the base, criminal, and treasonable auxiliaries which were brought to co-operate with F them, as I have said, were not the only resort of the federal- except those who were partisans to the principles ists in 1840. There were other means, perhaps less criminal, and supporters of their administrations; merit, worth, but not less disgraceful, resorted to. I mean drunken orgies; empty displays; vulgar scenes; and exhibitions of coons, pos- honesty, and talents, were no recommendation, &c. sums, skunks, empty barrels, old gourds, and snapping turtles; All this was false; for, throughout both the adminisprofane sacrifices; Tippecanoe and Hartford banners. These trations of Gen. Jackson and Mr. Van Buren, there disgraceful shows, senseless parades, and profane demonstrations, were as fatal to the good order of society, and were more federalists who held office under the general the moral institutions of the country, as the CHANGE they government than democrats. But I have no time to effected was fatal to its political and pecuniary inter-detail single whig falsehoods; I must limit myself to ests. Dignity of character, and morality of purpose, were generals. It was said that such a system of unrelenting alike sacrificed. All orders, all sexes, and all professions, of the entire federal family, were contaminated with the proscription was demoralizing, and was corrupting virus. Every institution and every temple, however sacred, the morals and prostrating the patriotism of the na was polluted. The temple of justice and the temple of re-tion; and, if the democracy could be overthrown, ligion, the judge's seat and sacred desk, were prostituted to the use and the level of the dogery, and the haunts of debauchery"prescription should be proscribed." "Proscription and dissipation. Yes, sit; not only wete the ermine and the proscribed" was one of the federal coon banners. judgment-seat contaminated, but the sacred desk and the pulpit Here Mr. DUNCAN held up a whig banner, bearwere polluted; and some of those who claim to be ministers of ing this inscription: the gospel, ambassadors of our Saviour, and Heaven's bearers of despatches and glad tidings, standard-bearers of the holy cross, and those who administer the holy sacraments, prostrated themselves from their high and lofty station, to which none but apostles and ministers ordained by Heaven's sanction should presume to ascend, even some of them, I say, prostra ted themselves at the shrine of the corruptions and politica iniquities of that time; and, in place of obeying the commands of their divine Master, in teaching the way of salvation to a dying world, were found playing the political missionary. In place of bearing witness to the truth of Ilis holy religion, they were endorsing all the base, false, and infamous slanders and detraction which were propagated to overthrow the administration-slander and detraction worthy of the distempered brain of the reckless political desperado, the heart of corruption, and the tongue of poison.. I cheerfully recognise the right of every individual in the community to exercise the rights of a freeman; but while I hold sacred the names of Christian minister and apostle, I deem it a duty I owe to the holy religion, by which I hope for redemption and salvation in the world to come, to denounce the man who will abuse it, as unworthy to be its professional advocate. Yes, sir, some of them were found participating with, and ning ling in, the drunken carousals that would have disgraced, a bacchanalian feast, in the most degraded days of Greece. Such men are made for the tables of money changers, not for casting out devils. They might grace a gambler's board, but they would pollute a temple. For the honor of the holy religion of our fathers, and the sacred names of minister and apostle, I hope there were not many who so disgraced themselves, their naine, and the religion which it is their profession to teach. But there were some. They will be marked, and made the subjects of religious and moral condemnation while they live, and wherever they go. Such were the demoralizing effects of means used in 1840, and such the end which justified the means. But, sir, ther promises were made besides those of reform and retrenchment. We will examine them, and see how far they have been fulfilled. We were promised a sound currency, and plenty of it. How has that promise been fulfilled? It is useless for me to relate what everybody knows; and that is, that this administration has done nothing either to improve the currency, or to increase its quantity. So, under the general head of falsehoods, I place that to No. 2. PROSCRIPTION TO BE PROSCRIBED and No man was to be turned out of office for opinion's sake. The only question was to be, "is he honest, is he capable." All this, it was well known, was contemptible cant and miserable hypocrisy. For one month before the presidential inauguration, this city was crowded with office-seekers, loafers, loungers, lean, long, and lank, to the number (it was said) of more than thirty thousand. I know that every public and private house (and some houses that I shall not name) were full from garret to cellar; and filled as the houses were, it was impossible to walk ten steps at a time in the avenue, without being jostled by some staggering, hungry, federal loafer. They seemed to have flocked from every part and every longitude and every latitude, and every zone, torrid, temperate, and frigid, of this wide-spread Union, numerous as the locusts, the lice, and the frogs of Egypt, and more devouring and destructive. Old federalists, who had been driven into caves with the Adamses, where they had slept for forty years, waked up, came forth in their moth-riddled, antiquated garbs, staggering on their worm-eaten staves, dragging their withered, emaciated carcasses, and shaking their gray locks;-such a gathering never before was seen; such a gathering never will again be seen, until the sea shall give up her dead at the summons of the last trump. Well, the inauguration came, and with it; as a first step, the It was urged that the administrations of General dismissal of every chief democratic officer at the Jackson and Mr. Van Buren were proscriptive ad-head of every department of the government; then ministrations; that they were administrations of commenced the guillotine. The axe was not pera party and not of the people; that no man was mitted to dry, nor the executioner to sleep; each permitted to share in the discharge of official duties, 'head in each' department vied with each other in The people were told that treasury notes were an uncon· stitutional currency, and were the offspring of the independent treausury. They were denounced and ridiculed as "Uncle Sam's shinplasters." The constitution was to be preserved, and there was to be no more of such shinplaster currency. The whigs had not been in power three months, before they authorized the issue of millions of dollars in treasury notes; and they have constituted a vast portion of the national cur reney from that day to this. That is general falsehood No. 3. The people were told, among the thousand other falsehoods about the independent treasury, that it was a dangerous executive engine, and that it placed the purse in the hands of the President, and gave him a dangerous control of the national treasury; and, if they obtained possession of the government, that dangerous executive control should be abolished. So, one peal the independent treasury, without making any provision for the safe-keeping and secure disbursement of the public revenue. The consequence was, that the President and his *secretary, ipso facto, acquired the entire and uncontrolled possession and management of every dollar of the public revenue, and have so enjoyed it from that day to this. The viola. tion of that promise I call falsehood No. 4. of the first acts of the federal coon administration was to re the work of execution. But Granger and Ewing How has that promise been fulfilled? Thousands went ahead, and even surpassed Robespierre, their of honest laborers will answer next fall through the worthy master and patron. The trial was more ballot-box-that they can get but twenty-five cents summary than that of the victims of the triumvirate. a day and no beef at all. So I place that promise The inquiry to each victim was not, "Is he capable, to the credit of No. 8. is he honest?" It was, "Are you a democrat? Do The federalists in the last Congress made you belong to the democratic association, and are but one attempt at retrenchment; and that atyou a subscriber to the Extra Globe?" The tempt was but insolent hypocrisy, and made to answer being in the affirmative, off went his head. deceive. The democrats, in a former Congress, Bring forward another; so it went. Such was the reduced the price of public printing fifteen inquisition-such the guillotine-such the Robes- per cent. When the federalists came into power pierres, and such the fate of the victims. prior to electing the government printers, they Mr. Speaker, there were more men proscribed passed a resolution reducing the price of printing for opinion's sake the first six months of this ad- twenty per cent., or five per cent. more; and then ministration, than there were from the first day of elected Gales & Seaton printers. That was the General Washington's administration, to the last show of retrenchment, and under that contract and day of Martin Van Buren's. So I make "proscrip-resolution was the public printing done; but, in order tion proscribed" general falsehood No. 6. to compensate for the reduction of the price, more One of the charges of extravagance against Mr. printing was given to Gales & Seaton, by near oneVan Buren's administration was the "princely man-half, than ever was given to public printers before by ner" in which the President's house was furnished. any Congress in the same length of time. But that was That falsehood was negatived by the appropriation not all: at the close of the last session, and to one of the of six thousand dollars, made to furnish the Presi- last appropriation bills, was made an amendment ap-dent's house at the commencement of this adminis-propriating forty thousand dollars to Gales & Seaton, tration. That appropriation was properly made; in addition to the price stipulated in the contract. the President's house required it; but the applica- Thus was the public treasury robbed to feed and fattion of the money was not made as intended. I do ten a pampered favorite partisan. So much for the not know what was done with all the money: I only attempt to fulfil the promises of retrenchment, think I know what was done with a part of it. That hypocritical show and false pretence I mark am told that near twenty-five hundred dollars was No. 9. laid out in wines to furnish the cellar-not in furni Sir, my time, and the limits of a speech, will not ture for the house. What will the honest, sober, permit me to prosecute the subject. If I had time tax-paying community say, when they learn that I could fill a volume with these startling and damning this was-to-be econominal and reform administration falsehoods. I have selected those general and unused twenty-five hundred dollars of their money to varnished ones, because they were connected with purchase wines for the loafing, lounging, lank fedepromises the more effectually to mislead the ral office-humer to guzzle down. But I must be thoughtless and unwary; because they were appeals brief on each head; so I place the charge of extrava- to the passions, to cupidity, and to avarice. When gance of the President's house-“gold spoons, French you hold up the promises made in 1840 to the fedbedsteads," &c.-to general falsehood No. 7. The day-laborers were told that if they would retrenchments and reforms you promised in the gov-.. eralists, and ask them, Why have you not made the join the federalists in the overthrow of the democrat-ernment expenditures? Where is the plenty of moic party, they should receive two dollars a day ney, and of good quality, you promised? Why have and good roast beef. I hold a banner in my hand; here it is; and here is the promise. Here is the in-you not preserved that sacred principle of patriot inscription. It reads: CACTS A DAY AND SHEEPS PLUCK to the LABOURER UNDER VAN-BUREN. 2 DOLLARS A DAY AND GOOD ROAST BEEF under GEN HARRISON ism-toleration in office--for the abuse of which you so denounced the administrations of General Jackson and Mr. Van Buren? Why did you not "proscribe proscription?" Where is that brilliant prosperity you promised to every institution, to every interest, and to every person of the country? But above all, where is that two dollars a day and good roast beef you promised to the day laborer? The answer is, Oh! General Harrison died, and John Tyler turned traitor. Every sniffling whig whiffet, and bank spaniel, as well as every pompous puffed-up, haughty, federal, aristocratic rag-baron has that answer at his tongue's end. If General Harrison did die, but John Tyler did not turn traitor. Of General Harrison and his death, 1 have nothing to say. Peace be to his manes. he had any faults in his life, I am the last to speak of them. Let his narrow tenement at North Bend conceal them. His virtues I will be first to speak of on all proper occasions. But I feel no restraint in saying that the man you elect to fill the highest station that man can occupy-to discharge duties the most important that can interest a nation-by such unhallowed means, and for such unhallowed purposes, he will die, too, in one month. There is This was your promise, and this your fiag, dis- a Providence who superintends this nation. He played in all your cavalcades, and in all your hard-holds its destinies in His hand; His track is cider orgies and bacchanalian feasts far and wide. to be seen in every path of the revolution |